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After 40 years, The Public Interest has ceased publication, and it will be missed
National Review, March 28, 2005
* After 40 years, The Public Interest has ceased publication, and it will be missed. Founded in 1965 by Irving Kristol, Nathan Glazer, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, and Daniel Bell, it began with enthusiasm about the vast meliorative efforts of Lyndon Johnson's Great Society. Economists and social scientists had figured out how society works, and Johnson was rolling up his sleeves and putting it all into practice.
It didn't turn out that way, of course. Many of the writers associated with the journal, having been "mugged by reality," became neoconservatives. For the rest of its life, it would demonstrate that social science doesn't have to be liberal--or dull. (With Charles Murray writing about poverty, James Q. Wilson about crime, and Milton Friedman about health care, there was never much risk of that.) The journal was a useful teacher to the end.
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